Ethel Puffer Howes

Who was Ethel Puffer Howes?

Ethel Dench Puffer Howes was an American psychologist and feminist organizer.

The ideal life must be that in which every act has a meaning for the whole, in which every purpose comes to fruition. Life is a unity, and responsibility is its matchword: for responsibility means obligation, a bond, one part of life answering to another part, a close-woven texture. - Puffer Howes, January 18

As one of the first women to embark on a career in psychology, Ethel Dench Puffer Howes faced obstacles at every turn, from institutionalized sexism at the universities and colleges where she studied and taught, to the challenge of maintaining a family life and career. She and her female peers nevertheless laid the groundwork for women in psychology today. Though choosing to marry effectively ended her career in academia, she adjusted her expectations and efforts to push the boundaries of socially imposed limitations for women, spending the rest of her life organizing and lobbying for women’s interests. Her attempts to live an ideal life, with the close-woven texture articulated so eloquently in the above quote, were never fulfilled in academia or in the field of psychology in particular, but her accomplishments in the nascent feminist socio-political movement brought that life into reach for future generations of women.